More Violence In Iraq Associated Press

More Violence in Iraq

Associated Press reports that the fortified Green Zone (US offices and Iraqi government buildings) in Baghdad took heavy mortar fire on Thursday. A car bomb wounded two US soldiers in Baiji. There was heavy fighting in Mosul, leaving a dozen people dead. We only hear about a fraction of such violence and attacks from such wire service reports, it turns out, since the US military doesn’t release full information about security in the country. In Baladruz northeast of Baghdad, a police colonel was assassinated.

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports the kidnapping of a female member of the governing council of Salahuddin and assassination attempts on two members of the municipal council of Khalis north of Baqubah. If provincial governing council members can’t be protected, how can you have a stable government? Police in Salahuddin province maintained that guerrillas had established a special operations unit which had a list of 100 personalities they intended to assassinate. There is every reason to think that the guerrrillas do have such hit lists, and also that they have been relatively effective in implementing it.